The world lost a great source of beauty and love with the passing on October 18, 2020, of Ariel Leonhauser Gold, an artist, mother, wife, daughter and loyal friend.
Ariel, 35, died of cardiac arrest in her sleep at her home in San Francisco. She was full of light and levity, smiles and passion, while unconditionally loving and caring for her two beautiful daughters, Rylin, 10, and Presley, 4, and her husband, Eric. In her all too brief time with us she produced a great body of beautiful, vibrant, abstract works of art. But she and Eric considered their daughters their greatest masterpieces.
Born May 5, 1985 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Ariel was captivated by color and textures at an early age. She graduated from Cranbrook Kingswood Schools in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and attended Lasell College in Newton, Mass., University of Memphis, and Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She fiercely pursued a career as a painter, culminating in her being selected for an exhibition at the prestigious de Young Museum in San Francisco where her painting, 33 Years, was on display. Her love of color theory pulsated in her work.
Ariel fully embraced her credo, “Live Vibrantly.” People on the streets of San Francisco and elsewhere inspired her. She didn’t focus on the person but rather the vibe or energy that he or she embodied. During quarantine those opportunities dwindled, so she called up memories of her family and friends and created a colorful optimism that resonated with all who viewed her work.
“I don’t see a subject,” Ariel wrote, “but rather feel what they represent and the joy these memories hold. These works are like visual songs that make you dance or sing or call an old friend because you just want to say, ‘I love you.’”
Ariel’s loving spirit will be felt forever within her nucleus of family and friends, including her San Francisco moms group, artists in San Francisco and the community at Cranbrook Kingswood. While college, travel and imagination honed her artistic talent, it was her experience at Cranbrook that nurtured her evolving creative spirit and gave her the confidence to pursue fine art as a career.
She will live on with us, and her optimism will always give us strength as we grieve her loss. In 2003, Ariel wrote, “If eyes are the windows to the soul, then what a magnificent gallery the soul must be.”
